accessing (sharing) an external drive on another mac

captainzagreb · 02-23-2009, 04:22 PM

I have an external hard drive connected to a powerbook g4 and I want to access it from my macbook. I have connected to the powerbook g4 remotely but cannot see the external drive. I can see other programs that were mounted, but not the drive? I have tried using sharepoints but have absolutely no clue what to do once I've installed it. I have also found the /volumes folder and still can't see the external drive. Any ideas?

Thanks

captainzagreb · 02-23-2009, 05:20 PM

Note: I just connected a new external drive (Seagate FreeAgent) and everything is working fine. It's when I connect a "MyBook" external drive that I have problems.

havoc · 02-24-2009, 08:51 AM

I have a mybook as well (connected via FW400) - it tends to go to sleep even though I have not enabled hard drive sleep in the control panel so when I hit my macbookpro (with sharing turned on) from another machine via afp - the mybook delays my connection until it wakes up. If I wake it up first it appears right away, but from the sound of things for you it's not appearing at all.

Check the energy saver to be sure you're not allowing your disks to sleep then check to see if permissions are set to ignored on the drive (using getinfo), Ignore permissions is the recommended default - which is fine for a homenetwork. I can't remember the specifics of the Tiger sharing but is it possible for you to select a folder on the mybook to share and see if that appears from your second machine when you connect to your powerbookg4 for filesharing? If you're using Leopard, open the sharing panel, click the plus button under shared folders and just add either a folder on the mybook or the mybook itself then set permissions for it on the right hand side under users. I'd stop and start File Sharing and then go sign on from the other mac and hopefully everything is good.

When you say you've found the /volumes folder - are you connecting via ssh? If so it would be a capital V on the directory /Volumes and your drive should absolutely appear when connecting via ssh as you'll be "on" the box itself, not looking at a set of sharepoints...

If you're not using the command line and you're on the second machine looking at the Volumes folder in the Finder - you're not seeing the mybook there because it isn't shared to the notebook properly. Once you get it shared though it will appear in there whenever you're connected to the sharepoint.

captainzagreb · 02-24-2009, 11:36 AM

Hi,
Thank you very much for your help. Unfortunately, no luck yet. I unchecked the external device sleep option, but that didn't work. As far as choosing a specific folder to share on the g4, it isn't possible. I did however connect the external drive to my macbook and told it to share the mybook from there. But that also didn't work. Regarding what you said about the Volumes folder, I was indeed looking at that folder with a capital V, I just forgot to capitalize it when I was writing. The deal with that folder is that I can see the mybook in the Volumes folder on the g4 but not on the macbook. So there you go. Thanks again. I appreciate it.

havoc · 02-25-2009, 07:43 PM

Because sharing the drive doesn't work from either of your machines but sharing another drive does I'm leaning towards a hardware or format issue. Does your mybook have dual interfaces, Firewire and USB? Perhaps you could swap over to the other interface and try again?

Long shot, how about fixing permissions on both of your macs - you can do it with disk utility or at the command line:

#sudo diskutil repairpermissions /

It takes a fair amount of time and may appear to be frozen while doing it so resist the temptation to force quit the repair and leave it for a while. If you have a pile of data, set it to run and go for lunch.

If you don't care about the data on the mybook you could try and reformat it. What format is it now? They usually come FAT32 for pc so first thing I do with new drives is re-partition and format MacOS Extended Journaled.

You might also want to check to see if there is a firmware upgrade on Western Digital's site for your drive.

captainzagreb · 02-26-2009, 10:40 PM

Thank you. Actually, the reformatting route was the one that ended up working after messing around with the permissions for a while. The one drive that did work was formatted as HMS+ while the non-working drive was FAT32. After reformatting the FAT32, everything was fine. Thanks again.

02-23-2009, 04:22 PM	#1
captainzagreb Prospect Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 5	accessing (sharing) an external drive on another mac I have an external hard drive connected to a powerbook g4 and I want to access it from my macbook. I have connected to the powerbook g4 remotely but cannot see the external drive. I can see other programs that were mounted, but not the drive? I have tried using sharepoints but have absolutely no clue what to do once I've installed it. I have also found the /volumes folder and still can't see the external drive. Any ideas? Thanks

02-24-2009, 11:36 AM	#4
captainzagreb Prospect Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 5	No luck yet (sharing external hard drive) Hi, Thank you very much for your help. Unfortunately, no luck yet. I unchecked the external device sleep option, but that didn't work. As far as choosing a specific folder to share on the g4, it isn't possible. I did however connect the external drive to my macbook and told it to share the mybook from there. But that also didn't work. Regarding what you said about the Volumes folder, I was indeed looking at that folder with a capital V, I just forgot to capitalize it when I was writing. The deal with that folder is that I can see the mybook in the Volumes folder on the g4 but not on the macbook. So there you go. Thanks again. I appreciate it.

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02-23-2009, 05:20 PM	#2
captainzagreb Prospect Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 5	Note: I just connected a new external drive (Seagate FreeAgent) and everything is working fine. It's when I connect a "MyBook" external drive that I have problems.

02-24-2009, 08:51 AM	#3
havoc Prospect Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 35	I have a mybook as well (connected via FW400) - it tends to go to sleep even though I have not enabled hard drive sleep in the control panel so when I hit my macbookpro (with sharing turned on) from another machine via afp - the mybook delays my connection until it wakes up. If I wake it up first it appears right away, but from the sound of things for you it's not appearing at all. Check the energy saver to be sure you're not allowing your disks to sleep then check to see if permissions are set to ignored on the drive (using getinfo), Ignore permissions is the recommended default - which is fine for a homenetwork. I can't remember the specifics of the Tiger sharing but is it possible for you to select a folder on the mybook to share and see if that appears from your second machine when you connect to your powerbookg4 for filesharing? If you're using Leopard, open the sharing panel, click the plus button under shared folders and just add either a folder on the mybook or the mybook itself then set permissions for it on the right hand side under users. I'd stop and start File Sharing and then go sign on from the other mac and hopefully everything is good. When you say you've found the /volumes folder - are you connecting via ssh? If so it would be a capital V on the directory /Volumes and your drive should absolutely appear when connecting via ssh as you'll be "on" the box itself, not looking at a set of sharepoints... If you're not using the command line and you're on the second machine looking at the Volumes folder in the Finder - you're not seeing the mybook there because it isn't shared to the notebook properly. Once you get it shared though it will appear in there whenever you're connected to the sharepoint.

02-25-2009, 07:43 PM	#5
havoc Prospect Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Canada Posts: 35	Because sharing the drive doesn't work from either of your machines but sharing another drive does I'm leaning towards a hardware or format issue. Does your mybook have dual interfaces, Firewire and USB? Perhaps you could swap over to the other interface and try again? Long shot, how about fixing permissions on both of your macs - you can do it with disk utility or at the command line: #sudo diskutil repairpermissions / It takes a fair amount of time and may appear to be frozen while doing it so resist the temptation to force quit the repair and leave it for a while. If you have a pile of data, set it to run and go for lunch. If you don't care about the data on the mybook you could try and reformat it. What format is it now? They usually come FAT32 for pc so first thing I do with new drives is re-partition and format MacOS Extended Journaled. You might also want to check to see if there is a firmware upgrade on Western Digital's site for your drive.

02-26-2009, 10:40 PM	#6
captainzagreb Prospect Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 5	Thank you. Actually, the reformatting route was the one that ended up working after messing around with the permissions for a while. The one drive that did work was formatted as HMS+ while the non-working drive was FAT32. After reformatting the FAT32, everything was fine. Thanks again.